


lights in the dark

by yankmywand



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Post Reichenbach, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-09
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-18 07:11:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yankmywand/pseuds/yankmywand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Do you know the feeling of watching a light in the dark, and then removing your eyes to look beside the light? There is a light, colours reversed, isn’t there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	lights in the dark

_Jim used to do that. He used to look at the lamp beside Sebastian’s bed, and then look at the wall on the opposite side of the room. When he couldn’t sleep, when he was done with studying, and the lamp beside Sebastian’s bed kept him up. Sebastian was always late with his studies. Literature, English, they were boring subjects, and Jim only helped because Sebastian asked him to come to the library with him. Despite the fact that Jim had already read through his study material, written an essay and gone through all the diagrams, he joined Sebastian. Never telling the other boy that he was finished, Jim still sat there, reminding himself of all the constellations he could find in the face of the boy beside him. When Sebastian looked up, Jim still stared. When Sebastian asked if something was stuck on his face, Jim grimaced and said,_

_“All those freckles peppered over your nose and cheeks.”_

_He never heard a response, but watched  Sebastian continue with his studies. When they left, it was usually dark. What did the dark matter? Sebastian and Jim walked as slow as they could, not mentioning to one another how slow they walked. Their hands swinging at their sides, occasionally touching._

_During the night, sheets tangled in sweaty wrestling matches, Sebastian letting Jim win, to see that smile spread over those full, pink lips. He tangled his fingers in Jim’s, and with a tug, Jim was drawn down to Sebastian, surprising Jim with the action. In the dim-lit room, kisses fired, sparked the back of Jim’s mind, and he closed his eyes. Heads tilted to accommodate the kisses, and noses nuzzled, as sheets were pulled over their heads and they rolled around.  Suddenly, Sebastian was on top. His hands, still tangled in Jim’s hands, pushed to the sides of Jim’s head, leaning down to kiss him once more._

_Kisses were seldom the end to their wrestling matches. Clothes were shed, and in the mild late summer nights, their moans and tangled limbs, messy kisses, and endearments were spilled out like star glitter over the sky. Jim wished it would never end._

_Out of breath, warm and sticky from sweat, and other body fluids, Jim sat in the open windows, Sebastian watching him from the bed. They rarely cuddled for long after sex. Jim wanted a cigarette, and Sebastian let him leave the embrace of his arms, thick and muscled, from long hours spent playing rugby, to sit by the window, with the sheets wrapped around his body like a toga. Jim was beautiful, as the dawn neared; the sun poked the sky with its red and pink gleam at the horizon._

_Then, Sebastian turned that lamp that Jim used to watch, off, and beckoned the Irish boy to join him. Down from the window, a pale, dark haired prince slid, and let the summer air in the room. He crawled down beside Sebastian, and by draping both arm and leg over Sebastian’s body, the sheet followed._

_Waking up, Jim realized that it was too light, to warm in the room for it to be only morning. Getting a slap to his face for not waking Jim up, Sebastian sat up, barely awake, watching the young man run out the door. And he flopped back down onto the bed, waiting for the storm of Jim’s anger to wash over like ‘Fuck you’ written in sand, washed away by a calm wave._

_Jim didn’t sleep in his bed that night._

_As night came, Jim was staring at Sebastian’s lamp, as he heard the squish of the marking pen draw over the pages in the text book Sebastian was holding. Until the book was slammed shut._

With a jerk, as he heard snapping noises in front of him, Jim stood by the check-out at Tesco, looking into a concerned face. Sebastian was snapping his fingers, to get Jim’s attention, and he stared blankly at Sebastian.

“You were going to scan the croissants, Jim, do you remember?” Sebastian was pronouncing his words very clearly, as if he thought Jim didn’t hear him, as if he thought he was slow.

In his confusion, Jim turned to the queue, and saw a line of people. Nodding slightly, he murmured,

“Yes, I remember,” And he held out the pack of croissants, as he let the scenes that he had just seen flash before his eyes.

That night, as he curled down on his side of the bed, he looked at the lamp on Sebastian’s bedside table, and then, he looked at the wall beside it. It was true; he did see the colours reversed. And those memories, they were his, and his alone.


End file.
